anti-HEROES is a webcomic created by Jordan Quigley that has since been taken over by two others, and now has a much quicker update schedule (for a given definition of "quicker").

The story starts out with a group of adventurers; Andil, an elven fighter who is competent enough to be incompetent; Xavier, a human who is (probably?) a ranger; Laldera, a human sorceress, and Lana, a human rogue. These are The Heroes.

Of course, there's a reason the comic is called anti-HEROES. Within the first few strips, Lana gets herself killed in a trap Andil shoved her into (though he probably didn't realize it); in typical D&D fashion, her allies loot her corpse and leave her behind. One strip later, she becomes much more competent when a mysterious necromancer in a fully concealing cloak resurrects her as a vampire. Originally shocked and upset, Lana ends up following him anyway, thus beginning the title team of anti-heroes. Eventually joining her and the necromancer are an incompetent illusionist ghost named Kaalinor, his equally incompetent ghost buddy Frank, and a tiefling ranger named Keriss.

In the Author Comments of Strip 219, the author finally confessed that he couldn't continue to do the comic anymore and narrowed down two options for his fans to vote for: 1: that he simply releases all his notes, future characters, plot points and secrets (à la Chainmail Bikini), or 2: that he finds another artist to carry on with the comic. The fanbase overwhelmingly voted for Option 2.

And from Strip 220 onwards, Team Dypen (consisting of Giant in the Playround members Dyluth and leakingpen) has officially taken over. General consensus among the fanbase is that so far, they're doing a great job. Dyluth handles creating all of the art, and the primary scriptwriting is handled by leakingpen, whose real name is Alexander Hollins. Other writing of his can be found at www.dreamfantastic.com.

When Aldran says an archfiend and a celestial produced children, Keriss calls foul on this ("It's against the rules!") but since Aldran himself is one of those children and possesses grey wings it's hard to refute him.

Undead are supposed to be immune to psionic power but Quentas can still reduce Kaal to a quivering mass saying 'ow' over and over again. He claims it's because he's lived long enough to find a workaround.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Kaal, sort of. He's still hopelessly stupid, but he's actually surprisingly competent and knowledgeable when he's put into a position where his illusionist training comes in handy.

Dark Is Not Evil: For people who traditionally fit the villain mold (Black Cloak, vampire, ghost, fiend) the main characters are awfully nice individuals. They're certainly nicer then the Ivory Veil.

The Ditz: Kaal is simple minded, easily distracted and has small memory banks.

Good Wings, Evil Wings: Played with. Aldran and Eldhin have gray wings, which are halfway between good and evil wings. They were the offspring of a fiend and an angel and are morally ambiguous themselves.

Idiot Ball: Played for comedy, usually with Kaal but other characters have their moments. While chained to a wall, Laris is trying to pull the anchor spikes out of the crumbling rock. One comes out easily, the other takes a lot longer. Moments later he's using the spikes that held the chains to pick the locks of his shackles. Another character asks why he simply didn't do that with the second shackle after he got one hand free. Laris just walks away in embarrassment.

Literal Metaphor: In "Ineffective Roadblock", Kaalinor proudly states, "If you're trying to get inside this tower, you'll have to go through me first!" Courageous of him, true, but since he's a ghost and his opponent a lich, Finx has absolutely no trouble just walking through Kaal's incorporeal body.

Finx: Vengeance seems to be all that you know, we're a lot more similar than you think. Aldran: Oh don't start with that, I'm well aware we share common traits. But there's one fundamental difference between you and me. Finx: Oh yeah? And what's that? Aldran:'I'm WINNING!

Lana: We can see the tower from here, it's not like something totally unexpected is going to suddenly jump out and stop us from getting there. Lana: ...Right? Aldran: Let's get out of here! Lana: Okay, we must have been lucky that time. Aldran: Go ahead. Tempt fate some more why, don't ya? Lana: At least it couldn't possibly get any wor— Aldran: SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Tsundere: Keris is Type A (tsun-tsun) that regularly gives Aldran a hard time but stays loyal to him and Is occasionally affectionate.

Aldran: When your're not yelling at me you're praising me.

Our Vampires Are Different: Lana was not sired by a vampire but by a special kind of scroll. Also, all vampires can become normal again, or at there used to be a way for them to do so before evil vampires destroyed it. If a vampire used that method, they'd No Sell any attempts of re-infection.

Lana: And what exactly makes you so important to know about about this prophecy, huh? Turrick: I wrote it. Lana: .... Oh. So, considering you're such a great guy and all, you wouldn't happene to be nice enough to explain everything to to me, would you? (Turrick blows her balloon with a spell) Lana: Aaah!! I'll take that as a "no."

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